Thorns of Gold Bonus Scene: Reunions

In celebration of Thorns of Gold hitting 50 reviews, I’ve got a bonus scene featuring a reunion I think you all have been waiting for. As well as some revelations for some characters you’ve also been waiting to see if they would ever find out…

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Gisele rolled her eyes at her husband as he bounced his leg and stared out the carriage window.

Hakim was more nervous than she was, and she was the one who had all the reason to be nervous. Ridiculous man.

“You didn’t have to come. I would have been just fine going with Loraine, Sandor, and Aurelia by myself,” Gisele said as Hakim stared out the window, watching Arcier roll by.

Gisele couldn’t say she liked the half-timber style of the city. It was homely and rustic and the complete opposite of Gisele’s extravagant proclivities. But it fit her perception of the newly restored country of Faen. The flowers especially growing up the side of buildings and the little balls of light flying around that could only be fairies were all very Faen.

Hakim scoffed, pulling his gaze away from the window. “I’m not worried about myself!”

“You’re not?” Gisele blinked. Considering the last time the two of them had seen the person they were reuniting with, she had thought the savage beating Hakim had received at the woman’s former fiancé’s hands was the only thing on his mind.

Hakim shifted in his seat again, moving closer to her on the bench they were both sitting on. Loraine, Sandor, Aurelia, and Meldon were in their own carriage, but during the trip Loraine had often swapped to ride with Gisele and Hakim when Meldon was being particularly difficult in the ways all toddlers were.

Hakim said, “Of course not. Prince—Emperor Enrique is in Esmea, and Queen Rosalia isn’t the one who kicked my face in. I’m worried about her sister considering how she almost took your head clear off for even suggesting Rosalia was alive.”

“Well, she’s clearly not going to now since she knows we were right!” Gisele said, leaning back in her seat, waving her hand dismissively.

“Just, please, for my sanity, can you be…” Hakim trailed off and gestured to her.

Gisele raised an eyebrow and narrowed her eyes, daring him to finish the sentence. “Be what?”

“You know what I mean.” Her husband was a smart man. He’d learned quickly not to fall for such obvious traps. “Rosalia’s sister is clearly not someone who responds well to your particular way of dealing with people—which I find incredibly endearing, obviously—” Hakim raised a hand before Gisele could get the words out of her open mouth. “I just don’t want to have to drag you away from her in case you say something that sets her off.”

Gisele crossed her legs and lifted her chin. “I can assure you despite what you might think, ridiculous man you are, I know very well how to deal with difficult women. I deal with myself every day, don’t I?”

“You can’t break someone’s neck with your bare hands. And you have better impulse control. Just, please, for my sake?”

Gisele let out a little huffy laugh as the carriage rolled to a stop and she could see the gates to castle courtyard being raised ahead of them. “I promise I will do everything I can to make sure there’s no reason for Rosalia’s sister to try to kill me.”

* * *

Rosalia hadn’t slept a single second the night before—not that she ever did anymore, but this time it was because her guests were scheduled to arrive that morning.

The only person more nervous than her about the meeting was the one actually pacing the parlor they were waiting in. As Aerona paced, her hands would almost dart up to her hair before she jerked them back down and pressed them to her sides then her stomach then almost to her hair before she stopped herself from ruining the braided crown she had.

When Rosalia had the idea to reach out to Queen Loraine to get in touch with the western spies who had helped Midas set everything in motion that led to Faen’s freedom, Aerona had confessed to Rosalia her… interaction with Queen Loraine when the woman had tried to inform Aerona about Rosalia’s survival.

So Rosalia and Aerona both had apologies to make to that morning. Aerona… maybe a slightly bigger apology.

But Rosalia had laid a trap for Aria—Gisele apparently was her real name—and had her thrown in the dungeons after her she’d watched Enrique beat her partner on Eurico’s orders.

Midas sat by Rosalia, his hand on her knee and he whispered, “Everything’s going to be fine. They’re going to understand. They didn’t even hold it against you then when I was helping them escape.”

“You talked them for what five minutes while you were dodging guards and clinking like a pocketful of loose change?” Rosalia huffed. “You didn’t even get their real names!”

“I got to watch them argue about how the other couldn’t possibly love them. It was very touching,” Midas said with a wry grin. “The memory of their bickering was the only entertainment I had while I was waiting for you to finally come visit me in the dungeons.”

Rosalia elbowed him in the side. She was never going to stop delighting in every tiny minuscule touch they could now share. The gold ring on her left hand caught the light as she did so.

Aerona had begrudgingly given Midas her blessing a few weeks after her own wedding.

And only after she’d grabbed Midas by the sleeve and dragged him out of the city for half a day.

People who entered Arcier that very day said they had no interest in investigating the yelling they’d heard. It had just made them move faster to get to the city.

Rosalia had asked Midas and Aerona individually what had occurred the half day they’d been gone, but neither had divulged a word.

But Aerona gave him far less grief following it. So they’d clearly hashed out their issues, and Rosalia was hopeful that maybe one day her sister and her fiancé would actually, maybe, get along and not just put up with each other for her sake.

“You’ll wear a hole in the floor if you keep it up,” Ilima chided from where she stood on the low table in front of the sofa, watching as Aerona kept moving.

Chasen sat on the arm of an empty chair, watching Aerona as well, specifically twitching every time her hands got close to her hair.

Ren was the calmest of them all, sitting in his chair, completely relaxed as he idly read while they waited. He was only there for the chance to meet Queen Loraine’s sister-in-law, a witch.

Aerona froze in the middle of her pacing, her head tilting the way it always did when she was hearing something no one else could. She said, “They’re coming down the hall.”

Rosalia rose from her seat, brushing her skirts off as Aerona immediately started fussing with her fitted jacket before Chasen stood up and pulled her hands away, murmuring in her ear that everything was going to be fine and the Astrians wouldn’t be coming if they didn’t want to.

The door opened and the page at it announced, “Your Majesty, Queen Rosalia, may I present Queen Loraine of Astren, Sir Sandor and his wife Lady Aurelia, their son Meldon, and Lord Hakim and Lady Gisele.”

The whole reason Rosalia had insisted on meeting in a parlor was to try to avoid the awkward formality of it all and so they could get straight to the sincere apologies, but she was always thwarted by everyone else who cared more about the pomp and circumstance of royalty.

“Your Majesty, Queen Loraine, Her Majesty, Queen Rosalia, her fiancé Prince Midas the Eighth, Princess Aerona and her husband, Prince Consort Chasen, Princess Ilima of the fairies, and the wizard, Ren.”

After the appropriate curtsying and bowing which Rosalia wanted to roll her eyes at, she didn’t even had the chance to speak before the taller blonde woman was sweeping her way through her group, and Rosalia was immediately relieved to see the woman she’d started to consider a friend had a bright light in her eyes as she took in Rosalia and Midas. Aria—Gisele immediately gestured toward Midas and said, “Midas? Your name is Midas?”

“Yes?” Midas blinked as he looked her over. “That’s what you’re concerned about? The last time you saw me, you hadn’t even seen my face and now I look like I’m always covered in gold paint and you care most about my name?”

“You just didn’t seem like a Midas, and it’s not a long name.” Ar—Gisele put her hands on her hips as her husband quickly wove around Queen Loraine and caught up to her, putting a hand on her back. She paid him no mind. “You couldn’t have said in Sariyah, ‘oh, by the way, my name is Midas.’ It’s only two syllables. Do you know how rude it has been for us to keep calling you the gold-eyed man all this time? And you’re a prince? Honestly, your manners are abhorrent.”

Midas raised his eyebrow. “You didn’t give me your names either.” He pointed Hakim. “That’s not even the same man who was in the dungeons with you.”

Hakim laughed. “So you’re not the only one who looks a little different.”

“Yes, well, I had a curse broken. What’s your excuse?” Midas asked.

“Enchanted locket so I looked like my cousin,” Hakim said.

“Wait, hold on!” Gisele waved her hand. She looked at Midas. “Curse? Curse? You were cursed?” Gisele then looked at Rosalia and said, “And also, are we just going to breeze by the fact you two are engaged?”

“Perhaps you can discuss that in a minute?” Queen Loraine spoke up from behind the two of them, her brother on her right and the witch holding a toddler on her left.

Rosalia could see Aerona stiffen out of the corner of her eye as Loraine’s eyes landed on her. Aerona’s face started to darken but Chasen put a hand on her arm and she rolled her shoulders back. Aerona spoke up, “Yes, I believe my sister and I have something we need to say first.”

Hakim immediately started pulling his wife off to the side of the room as Aerona took a step forward. Rosalia gave her sister an encouraging smile. She and Aerona had spent countless hours practicing and perfecting what she was going to say. 

After her warm reception from Ar—Gisele, Rosalia wasn’t worried about her apology anymore.

Aerona took a deep breath. “Your Majesty, I… I want to offer my sincerest apologies for the way I treated you and threatened you when you were just trying to help. I have no excuse for my behavior. At least… I don’t want to offer one. My actions are my responsibility, and I am sincerely sorry and incredibly grateful for the grace you showed me in the wake of my wildly inappropriate behavior.”

Rosalia resisted the urge to beam at her sister as silence fell after her words. Chasen gently ran his hand up and down her arm as he stood behind her.

Queen Loraine eyed Aerona. The witch shifted her son on her hip and exchanged a look with Sandor.

Queen Loraine nodded and said, “Your apology is accepted, Princess Aerona. I understand it was a fraught time and I should have given more consideration to your circumstances and history that would make such news hard to swallow as well as my request for your assistance would be too much at once.”

“Thank you,” Aerona whispered and then she stepped back.

Gisele clapped her hands together and shot her husband a smug look. “Excellent. Now. Can we get to the good stuff?”

Loraine laughed and waved her hand. “Please Gisele, go ahead, I’m sure we’re all curious to finally know what happened for both sides.”

“Yes, of course, please, come sit,” Rosalia said, gesturing to the chairs and sofas. “We’re happy to tell you all everything, but especially to formally acquaint ourselves. Especially Princess Ilima and Ren who haven’t had the pleasure.”

Ilima shot up into the air, glowing brighter, as the words spilled out of her mouth, and Rosalia was surprised she’d managed to wait so long before speaking, “It’s a pleasure to meet all of you! It is so wonderful to finally be out of hiding! Oh, look at him, he’s so little!” Ilima had darted forward slightly, drawing short before she got too close to the toddler who was gaping at her with wide golden-brown eyes and his fist falling out of his mouth.

“He’s ten times your size,” Aerona blurted out.

Ilima rolled her eyes at Aerona and said, “So? He’s little compared to you! I’m going to fawn over every human baby I see until you and Chasen have one and it wears off!”

“Thank you?” Aurelia asked, shifting her grip on her son, taking in the fairy princess with her hazel eyes.

Ren stepped forward and held his hand out for Aurelia to shake it. “It’s a pleasure to meet a witch. I’ve had no one in Faen to discuss human magic with, and I’m looking forward to making your acquaintance better.”

Aurelia shook his hand with one hand as she kept holding her son with the other while everyone else found their seats before following.

The second Rosalia’s rear hit her seat, Gisele was leaning forward and saying, “Tell us everything.”

So Rosalia did. She tried to keep it as brief as possible but with Gisele interrupting for more details every second, Rosalia gave up and indulged the other woman. Their friendship had been so overshadowed by the fact both of them had been using and lying to the other, she’d forgotten just how much she’d genuinely enjoyed being around Gisele just because of her larger-than-life approach to everything.

When Rosalia reached the part where she found Ruskin’s wanted poster, her throat closed and she knew she wasn’t going to be able to get his name out without her eyes welling up, so she brushed over it. They didn’t talk much about Ruskin since Ren’s return and Midas’ curse being broken.

There was no body. So there was no funeral. And they knew so little of his past that they had no idea where they would even begin contacting anyone who might need to know of his death now that he was gone.

They just… didn’t talk about him. They kept moving on.

Rosalia wasn’t ready for this to be the first time. So she just called him Helio’s right-hand man. How they found him being arrested in Arcier and broken him out with the help of an imp, Sandy.

“An imp?” Aurelia sat up in her seat, her gaze darting up from where she’d been keeping her son occupied with a soft cloth toy.

Midas immediately scowled. “He was the most annoying creature I’ve ever encountered, and the worst part was he also had gold eyes and gold hair. He loved nothing more than he loved tormenting me.”

Rosalia shot him a stern look. “He also made Faen’s freedom possible.”

Midas just huffed at that, and Aurelia sat back in her seat even as her husband shifted closer and Rosalia continued the story once Gisele said, “Yes, yes, but how does he tie in to all of this and you joining the rebels with Helio’s right-hand man?”

As Rosalia continued, telling them how Ruskin brought them to the rebel camp and when no one else was certain she was who she was claiming to be, he was also the one who convinced her to stay long enough to prove it.

Rosalia turned to Aerona and said, “You know that night, I was walking away and the thing that got me to stop and listen was him saying about you, ‘she can snap me in half with one hand. And she will if I’m wrong about you.’ He was still so certain I was Rosalia.”

Her voice cracked despite the fact she’d been trying to avoid his name, trying not to think about the fact he was gone.

After Midas, Ruskin was the one who had believed in her the most.

Aerona lowered her own gaze for a moment before shaking her head and laughing softly, “Of course he did. That sounds exactly like Ruskin.”

Ren cracked a smile and opened his mouth, but he was quickly cut off by the sound of a choked gasp, and Rosalia turned to see utter horror filling the Astrians’ faces, all but Gisele’s who was looking at her husband with a baffled expression.

Aurelia had gone nearly transparently white, and she jerked her son closer, startling him into letting out a sharp cry. Loraine blinked and shook her head. “Pardon, sorry, what did you just say?”

Rosalia swallowed thickly as her eyes watered. Her throat was too tight for her to speak. Aerona was eyeing the Astrians a little closer while Ren shifted forward, his own expression deeply mournful and his voice soft as he said, “King Helio’s right-hand man, his name was Ruskin.”

Aurelia’s son was crying, but she was only clutching him as she whipped around to her husband, and he reached for her arms and said, “Aurelia, hey, look at me. Take a deep breath. It’s just a coincidence. He was the king of the fairies’ right-hand man. Obviously he was Faenic and just happened to have the same name. He’s gone. If he wasn’t, do you really think he’d be in Faen? He’d have come after us by now, but he hasn’t because he’s dead.”

Aurelia nodded, and then she started rubbing her hand up and down her son’s back. But her eyes were still wide and her breathing still sharp and short.

Rosalia opened her mouth to suggest maybe they stop for the day, considering there was clearly something that needed to be dealt with, but Aerona—Rosalia adored her sister with everything in her, but since she had only really spent the last five years around humans wasn’t exactly great at reading a room—said, “Ruskin wasn’t Faenic. He wasn’t even human, not technically. He was… something else.”

Aurelia shot out of her seat, but her husband still had his grip on her so he stumbled to his feet with her, trying to keep her and their son from falling. Loraine raised her hand, stopping Aurelia from speaking, and she toward Rosalia. “Describe his appearance. What exactly was he?”

Midas spoke up when Rosalia couldn’t quite get the words out. “He told me once he used to be an imp. But when we knew him he wasn’t anymore. He was… not quite human but close. He was fair skinned, very pale, quite short, about Lady Aurelia’s height, he had these scars on his face, not quite like Aerona’s, but enough to be distinct, and he had vibrant red hair.”

 * * *

Aurelia turned on her heels, keeping her grip on her son solid as she looked around.

He had lived.

He was here.

“Where is he?” She snapped, looking at the Faenics who were all gaping at her like she was the insane one when they had Ruskin in their midst. “Tell me. Now! Stars above, where is he?”

Queen Rosalia opened her mouth but choked on the words. “He—Uh—He’s—”

Aurelia ignored her and grabbed Sandor’s sleeve with her other hand and said, “Never mind. We need to leave, right now! Whatever trap this is he’s planned, we need to go.”

“Aurelia, breathe—” Sandor tried to still her frantic movements.

She could feel everyone staring at her but she didn’t care. She needed to get her husband and son to safety before that monster tried to take them from her. He’d almost succeeded in taking Sandor from her too many times.

She would not let him. She would not let him live in the same world her son did.

“Ruskin’s dead.”

Aurelia froze. Sandor shifted so he was behind her as she found who had spoken.

The young wizard. Ren, they’d called him.

“That’s what I thought until just now too!” Aurelia snapped.

“He died.” The young wizard pushed himself out of his seat, rising to his feet and the calm neutral expression he’d had throughout the meeting was gone as he narrowed his eyes at Aurelia. Sandor held his hand out in front of her and Meldon. Ren said, “Believe me. He died saving my life.”

Aurelia laughed, but it was sharp, breathless, and horrified. “You expect me to believe that? That monster didn’t care about anything but himself!”

“He is dead. He died trying to fix a mistake I made,” Midas spoke up. “And you’re wrong.”

Ren spoke before she could snap at the Reshic, “I watched him go overboard the ship myself in the middle of the Howling Sea so he could drown my master, the Scholar. He was committed to killing the Scholar and died doing so. There was no way either of them could have survived that storm, especially not without magic.”

No. No, they were fools. He had the ability to teleport. If he’d survived breaking his deal with her, then he could survive anything.

“We’re not lying. He’s gone. As much as we wish he wasn’t,” Rosalia said, and the way her voice tightened had Aurelia fighting the urge to scream at her.

They were all idiots. The same kind of idiot she’d been when she’d fallen for his manipulations.

“Start from the beginning. Tell me everything.”

“It’s a long story,” the beastly brute of a woman that had once sent Aurelia into a wall said.

Loraine might have forgiven her, but that didn’t mean Aurelia had. She’d broken Sandor’s glasses.

But Aurelia let Sandor pull her into her seat, keeping his arm wrapped around her as Meldon started to settle back into her grip, his eyes drooping and ready to sleep despite her frantic interruption.

“What do you know of the Scholar?” the beastly looking woman, Aerona, asked.

The Scholar?

Focusing on that steadied her a little, but she could still feel Ruskin’s existence in the air now that she’d been made aware of it, crawling over her skin.

“My mentors, Gothel and Junia, they mentioned him.” Aurelia took another steadying breath. “Apparently Gothel got involved with him when they were both young and they worked together for a time. But their ambition butted heads. They couldn’t both be the most powerful magic user on the continent, so they parted ways. This was long before Gothel realized the monster she’d become trying to best him. I’m grateful to never have met him.”

“The Scholar is the reason I’m…” Aerona gestured to her face, and Aurelia didn’t quite follow, but given her… appearance Aurelia understood enough. “I was one of his experiments. Ruskin was another. I met him when I was recaptured by the Scholar. He was…”

Her heart picked up again. He was what?

Ren spoke up, “Ruskin sort of… appeared out of nowhere, and the Scholar wanted to see if he could turn a monster into a man. The Scholar never confided in me about anything, but Ruskin liked to antagonize him by bringing up his former mistress… Gothel, who was… your mentor?”

The way the young wizard narrowed his cold eyes at her in accusatory manner had her narrowing hers right back. These Faenics knew nothing about Gothel or Ruskin. “By the time I met Gothel, she’d changed. Keep going.”

“Regardless, we first met Ruskin when he was the Scholar’s prisoner,” the man sitting on the arm of the chair Princess Aerona was sitting in spoke up. Her husband. “Everything before that is an even longer story, but suffice to say, he offered to help us save Aerona from the Scholar and his curse.”

There was a moment of silence as Aurelia made sure she’d heard him correctly.

“Why?” Aurelia narrowed her eyes. Why would Ruskin have done that? What did he have to gain?

“He said it was because he might deserve whatever he got from the Scholar but Aerona didn’t, and he wanted to do better that day than he had the day before,” Chasen said. “Frankly, the Scholar had just dragged the love of my life off to use her to wreak havoc and hurt innocent people and I had just barely survived getting shot in the stomach. We needed his help. We never would have broken Aerona’s curse without him.”

Ah. Of course. They were desperate. Ruskin made a deal with that’s what he always did. They let him out, and he helps them. Obviously.

Now things were starting to make sense. His machinations always did when one had the full picture.

“After it was over, I had to leave Faen to keep the Scholar from coming after me again,” Aerona said. “Ruskin had used the last of his magic to help us. He decided to stay with the fairies and help keep them safe from the empire and the Scholar as well.”

What… What did he get out of that?

Well… Imps came from wherever the fairies had originally come from. They were creatures of magic. He must have hoped he could leverage his help for some kind of deal that would help him get his power back. He’d just been biding his time and regaining his strength.

“And that’s where we came in,” Rosalia said, gesturing to herself even as her voice was still thick and made Aurelia want to shake her until she realized this creature was not one worth a single mournful tear. “His physical appearance was so distinct and his crimes against the empire long—including burning down the Scholar’s estate—”

Sandor snorted, and his burn scars peeked out past his sleeve. “Of course he did.”

“—it was easy to find him. He…” Rosalia shook her head and there was a tiny smile on her face. “He knew instantly who I was, and he helped Midas and I reach the fairies and the rebellion. He was King Helio’s right-hand man throughout the rebellion and when I ran away, he and Midas came after me, and that was when Ren joined us as well.”

Aurelia didn’t know how much Ruskin would have had to help them to get his magic back, but a full-scale rebellion was a lot of work.

Ren’s lips twitched. “Ruskin immediately sort of… took me in. Him and Sandy. We all had good reason to hate the Scholar, so it was easy to get along and talk about magic. Like Aerona, now that I had escaped the Scholar, I worried every day he would come and take me back, and… Ruskin swore he wasn’t going to let that happen.”

Midas lowered his gaze, but Aurelia was too busy trying to figure out what he would gain from pretending to befriend the young wizard. It had to be part of his plan. He must have sensed their desperation and was just lying in wait for the time to strike. He always did.

“After I activated my curse, Midas and Ruskin went to travel to Reshil to try to convince them to ally with Faen and reconsider their stance on magic.” Rosalia put her hand on Midas’ knee and squeezed. “Midas…”

Midas looked up, and Aurelia couldn’t believe what she was seeing, so much guilt and for what? A creature who would have sold them out at a moment’s notice? His skill in manipulation had only grown.

She shuddered to imagine how she might never have escaped him if he’d been this skilled at it when he’d been after her.

“Ruskin was convinced he could find a way to break my family’s curse despite how many times I told him it was impossible. He was determined though. He did everything he could to help me… but when things didn’t go according to plan and we didn’t have a way to wake Rosalia up from her curse, I… I made some terrible decisions and… I—I went to the Scholar and when he said he wanted Ren back, I agreed. Ruskin was—”

“I’ve never seen him so angry,” Aerona said. Like she knew anything about him.

Like any of them knew exactly the kind of monster they’d let in their midst.

“He was so angry he didn’t even tell me he knew how to save Midas from his curse,” Rosalia whispered, shaking her head. “He was willing to take that to his grave.”

Now that sounded like Ruskin.

“I can’t blame him,” Midas said. “I deserved to stay gone.”

Wait… they were making excuses for him?

“He and Sandy came up with a plan to rescue me from the Scholar after I was handed over. And he died doing it,” Ren said.

Aurelia shook her head, fighting the bile rising in her throat at the way they all talked about him. Like he was their friend. Like he was some kind of hero.

Aerona tilted her head and narrowed her eyes at Aurelia, and she narrowed them right back. Horrid woman, and not because of her appearance. Aerona said, “You’re her, aren’t you?”

“He told you about me?” Aurelia shifted back as Sandor’s grip on her tightened.

Aerona shook her head. “Not specifically.”

Of course he hadn’t. If he had, it would have just been filled with lies to get their pity.

Midas said, “He’s mentioned having a past he’s not proud of. Things he was trying to run from.”

Aerona continued, “But it’s obvious. You’re the girl he loved.”

Loved?

Aurelia couldn’t help the mocking, bitter laugh that fell from her lips. “That’s what he told you? He acted like I broke his heart? Oh, that’s rich. He never stops, does he? He lied to you and twisted the little truth he did have until you all bought it and believe he was some kind of tragic hero.”

“He never pretended to be a hero,” Aerona snapped. “He knew he’d messed up. He was trying to be better, and whatever happened between you two, he was doing better.”

“Whatever happened? Oh, since he so conveniently didn’t tell you, I will,” Aurelia sneered. “Love, ha! He didn’t love me. He was never in love with me. He was obsessed with me, and he wasn’t going to let anything stop him from possessing me.”

They all looked at her, and she just held her son tighter. Fine. Since they so desperately wanted to believe his manipulations, she was going to do them the same favor she’d needed. Someone was going to have to tell them the truth like Sandor told her and reveal his twisted machinations to free them from his grasp.

She’d never told anyone before what he’d done. She’d never had to. Because he was supposed to be gone.

She told them how he’d shown up on her doorstep, but it wasn’t an accident. He wasn’t some old friend of her father’s who happened to end up caught in the rain. He’d come for her. He’d been whispering in the king’s ear about a girl who could spin straw into gold. How he had set everything into motion. How the king had killed her father and Ruskin let him, instead, waiting until that night to swoop in and save her. How he’d lied to her about Sandor to make her believe he was the only one she could trust, the only one she could count on. How he’d stopped Sandor from running away with her and making sure she was desperate enough to agree to his terms without even knowing what they were.

How he had kept her locked in Gothel’s tower for over half a year where the only contact she had was him. How he was obsessed with her hair—because it had traces of magic, how Gothel had originally marked Aurelia’s mother and her for when she was ready for the apprentice she had bargained for—spinning it longer and longer. How he’d caught her snooping and thrown her into the floor.

How when Sandor found her and rescued her, he shifted his form into Sandor’s, gone back, killed the king, and sent Loraine on the run for her life. All done so Sandor would feel desperate enough that Ruskin would be able to sense it and find them. When he had, how he’d stabbed and blinded Sandor and left him for dead, cut her hair and teleported her to the desert and left her out there waiting for her to be desperate enough to break and submit to needing him again.

How when she didn’t, he had every girl who looked like her in the country brought before him to find her. How he killed Gothel right above Sandor’s head while they tried to find his true name to stop him. How he wiped her memories so he could steal Sandor’s identity completely and pretend to be the man she loved.

How when he raised his hand to her again, he’d broken his end of the deal and then he was gone.

With every word she could see the Faenic’s discomfort increase. How they clearly wanted to counter her accusations but stayed quiet as the story kept getting worse. Once the truth was out, let them try to justify him then.

“That’s… Forgive me, I just… it’s hard to believe,” Queen Rosalia whispered, shaking her head.

“Aurelia, Sandor, Hakim, and I all lived it,” Loraine said. “All of Astren lived it. The Imposter King, you must have heard of the circumstances of my ascension. That was Ruskin.”

“I believe it…” Aerona looked over to Chasen. “Some of the things he said…”

Her husband reached over and squeezed her arm.

Midas nodded, his lips pinching for a moment before he said, “It fits with the few vague things he mentioned to me. He… he once told me if what I’d said was true, then I’d be far too much like him, and that’s not something anyone should be. I think that was what enraged him the most about what I did. It was something like what he’d done.”

Aurelia couldn’t believe this.

After everything she’d just told them. After hearing everything Ruskin had done to her, they were still trying to rationalize it? They didn’t realize he’d just been playing them the way he’d so expertly played her?

“He was manipulating you!” Aurelia blurted out, passing Meldon over to Sandor as she shot out of her seat. “How are you all so blind? From the moment he first encountered any of you, he was just saying what he had to in order to earn your trust so you’d let him out of his cage at the Scholar’s, after that whatever he had to do to keep your trust and make you believe he was on your side. That’s how he does it! He swoops in acting like he can help you—like he’s the only one who has the answer so you think he’s some kind of hero. He fixated on me because I happened to smile at him as a baby. That is how desperate he is to be adored! And look at all of you! You still do even now that you know the past he tried to hide from you!”

Aerona shifted in her seat, closer to her husband. “With all due respect, that’s the Ruskin you knew. Not the one we did. We… he knew what he’d done in his past was wrong. He wanted to be better. Some of us understand that.”

Aurelia scoffed. “I’m trying to tell you that was all fake! It wasn’t real! He isn’t human. He can’t feel guilt! He can’t feel bad for anything. He has the ability to sense desperate people for the express purpose of seeking them out and taking advantage of them! All he could do was make you believe he felt guilty because you clearly have your own issues. He used that to endear himself to you because he’s a sad, lonely, despicable creature who will set the world on fire just to get a little bit of warmth.”

A hand on her arm had her stepping back. Loraine had risen from her seat and was stepping in front of Aurelia and giving her a stern queenly look before turning back to the Faenics. “Regardless of our respective histories with him, it’s clear that whatever scheme or purpose he might have had in helping anyone, he’s gone. That’s what you said, Apprentice?”

The young wizard narrowed his eyes. “Ren. My name is Ren. And yes. Ruskin’s dead. There is not a doubt in my mind about it.”

Loraine nodded, looking between their group and the Faenics and gestured calmly. “So that’s that.”

Aurelia sank back into her seat and Sandor pulled her into his side as he held their sleeping son, and Aurelia just leaned in to look at their boy. She brushed her hand over his golden blonde hair and closed her eyes, focusing on the warmth beneath her hand.

Ruskin was gone.

And at least he’d never had the chance to act on the grand manipulation he’d been orchestrating. She was still safe. Sandor and their baby were safe. He wasn’t going to come back and rip them from her to punish her for not loving him.

But if he hadn’t already been dead before they’d come to Faen…

Well, Aurelia hadn’t been training as witch ever since he’d disappeared for no reason. And she had his true name.

Which was… he’d gone around telling everyone his true name despite the fact anyone who realized it was his true name could use it to control him. That she still couldn’t piece together. It was like walking around with his beating heart in a box and just hoping no one would open it and rip it in half.

Still, he was dead.

And she was strong enough to kill him even if he wasn’t.